(Irish Times) Ronald S. Lauder - Israel-bashing enjoys widespread support in Western media, as well as in universities, NGOs, trade unions and international organizations. The UN reserves most of its ire for the most liberal, free and progressive country in the Middle East. A country that guarantees and upholds religious freedom and offers all of its citizens, including its Arab minority, the same civil rights, is pilloried by those who blatantly disregard the values of the UN Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights. Yet the critics often turn a blind eye to the realities in the Middle East. They ignore that the Iranian regime, which crushed protests this summer and has not been censured for this, has for years not only ideologically opposed Israel, but supported the training of Hamas and Hizbullah fighters, supplied them with weapons and thus sponsored attacks on Israel. They fail to condemn the Palestinian leadership for not having managed, despite billions of dollars in aid, to build structures that can guarantee the economic well-being of the Palestinians and Israel's security and integrity. The writer is president of the World Jewish Congress.
2009-12-08 08:20:41Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive